Dawn Farm's Japan Connection

Mototsugu Arai Minowa MAC President	Jim Balmer Dawn Farm President

In 2002 Jim Balmer, Dawn Farm's President, received a request to present at an addiction treatment conference in Tokyo, Japan. The request was from Mr. Mototsugu Arai (Arai-san), the President of Minowa MAC, a treatment provider in Tokyo. William White had recommended that Arai-san ask Jim (more info on Mr. White's work here and here).

Jim was not sure what to expect as he traveled 6500 miles from home to a country with its own unique culture and perspectives on alcoholism and drug addiction. What he found was a kindred spirit—in Arai-san and the other staff on volunteers of Minowa MAC.

	Jim and Marth Balmer with Minowa MAC staff and volunteers

Jim also found a treatment system and societal attitudes towards addiction that resembled the United States in the 1950s. Many addicts and alcoholics in Japan are treated in government run hospitals that are very similar to the psychiatric hospitals that cared for American addicts in the 1950s. Long term maintenance on tranquilizers is routine and expectations for recovery are low.

In contrast, Minowa MAC and other programs like it tend to be staffed by passionate and caring recovering folks. These men and women are offering compassion and hope in the face of enormous stigma and ignorance about addiction from the public and other helping professionals. They are starving for information, affirmation and hope.

	2003 visit to Ann Arbor

They were so excited about what they heard from Jim that in June 2003 Arai-san brought a group of 15 addiction counselors, social workers, nurses and volunteers to visit Dawn Farm. We provided training, took them to a William White training, did some sight-seeing and introduced them to some local government officials. They also spent time with our clients and members of Ann Arbor's recovering community. They had a wonderful time—and so did we.

	Kelly and Brenda at a Minowa MAC party

Shortly after they left we received a request for Dawn Farm staff Kelly Mullins and Brenda Bolzman to present at their next national conference in November 2003. Kelly and Brenda presented on addiction treatment for women, addressing trauma in addiction treatment and enhancing motivation to recover. They also had the opportunity to spend the night in a women's halfway house and share their experience strength and hope.

	2004 Visit to Ann Arbor

In the summer of 2004, Arai-san brought another group to visit Dawn Farm and Hazelden in Minnesota. We did a little less work and made sure we fed them plenty of rice (their only complaint from their first visit). We were touched to find out later that one of our visitors, a social worker in a hospital for addicts, decided that he could no longer work in the hospital system. He returned to Japan, quit his job, and started his own clinic and day-treatment program. He attributes his decision to his experience at Dawn Farm and only regrets that the cut in income mean that he probably won't be able to visit us next year.

	Jason and Pete with our Minowa MAC friends

At the end of thier visit Arai-san asked Jason Schwartz and Charles Coleman to visit to train on Motivational Enhancement Therapy on street outreach. Unfortunately, Charles wasn't able to travel and Pete Tiseo did a great job filling in at the last minute. It was another wonderful experience for our staff. Peter and Jason were deeply moved by the caring, compassionate, hopeful and accepting culture of the Minowa MAC programs and the high level of involvement with the recovering community.

	Pete in front of J MAC (One of Minowa MAC's treatment sites)

Contemporary American addiction professionals tend to look back on the programs of the 1950s as the "dark old days." What we've seen in Japan is not the "dark old days," but a committed group of loving people fighting for the establishment of a permanent addiction treatment system, so that every addict who needs help will receive compassionate and hope-filled care from competent professionals.

We recently learned that Arai-san will be bringing another group to visit Dawn Farm in June 2005. We are looking forward to spending more time with our Japanese friends.